T'is the Season for Tradition

Traditions over the holidays have always been important to me. Now that we have kids, establishing our own family traditions has become a huge priority but has also caused a bit of stress in my life. Let me tell you why things get increasingly stressful this time of year.

Tony's parents are divorced and both re-married. My parents are divorced and my dad is re-married. That's right, my kids have 7 grandparents. 7 grandparents is a huge advantage for the majority of the year. More babysitters, more fundraising victims, more spoiling and more fun!

At Christmas however, things change. All 7 grandparents want to see the girls over the course of 2 short days. The same 2 days I would like to have our own traditions with my own little family. Not to mention that Boxing Day, aka Tony's birthday, is now off limits for Christmas celebrations because I don't think it's very fair to have to share your birthday year after year. I'm pretty strict with this rule even more so now since Rylan's birthday is only 3 days before Christmas.

Growing up, my sister, brother and I had many traditions. They started a few weeks before Christmas with the purchase of a new Hallmark ornament for our tree. We got to pick out a new one every year until we turned 18. It was always cool to look back at all of our previous picks when it came time to decorate the tree. A strange coincidence was that all 3 of us chose rocking horse ornaments when we were 2! We have continued this tradition with Rylan and Tatum and I couldn't wait to see what Rylan would pick when she was 2. Apparently Rylan isn't down with tradition, she picked a puppy! As kids, we knew every time there was a new addition under the tree and we couldn't wait to get our hands on those gifts. The anticipation of Christmas morning is enough to drive any child crazy! To ease the excitement, we were allowed to open 1 gift on Christmas Eve. Mom would carefully choose a gift for each of us and on the count of 3 we would tear into the paper. Year, after year, our Christmas Eve gift was always a brand new pair of pajamas. I'm embarrassed to say this, but it took me quite a few years to figure out that it wasn't by chance that we were all getting pjs. I have also continued this tradition with my girls. This way they'll always be looking cute in a new pair of jammies in holiday pictures for years to come! Maybe Tony and I should consider this idea for ourselves? I had a look at last year's Christmas morning pictures and well, what the hell was I thinking!? I had on my oldest pair of pjs and an ugly old sweatshirt. Not to mention I had just had a baby 3 months earlier and was a tad heavier than I would like to admit.

Those are Tatum's jammies for this year. How cute are they?

These are Rylans... warm fleece bottoms!Mom and Dad had strict rules when it came to Christmas morning. We weren't allowed out of our rooms until 7am. Some years, it felt like the longest wait ever! Once the clock struck 7 we all ran into our parents room and tried to get them up and moving as quickly as possible. Dad would always joke around telling us he needed to shower, shave, brush his teeth, any excuse to delay the process and get us going. Once we convinced him to put all of his morning rituals on hold he would leave the room first. He would go check to make sure that Santa wasn't still hanging around. After all, if you see Santa, he takes your gifts back to the North Pole. Who thinks of this stuff?! Anyway, after we emptied our stockings (which always included a Terry's Chocolate Orange and Kinder eggs) and opened our gifts we moved onto to breakfast of Cinnabons, eggs benedict, bacon, muffins, you name it, we had it!

Later in the afternoon we would get ready to go to Christmas dinner at my Grandparent's house on the McFarlane side. It was always a great reunion of all 9 cousins and we could discuss what we got from Santa that morning. We would open even more gifts, eat even more food and leave happy, tired and full. I can't help but smile thinking about the Christmas' we used to have.

I want my kids to really enjoy Christmas. I don't want to have to rush Christmas morning so we can get to every grandparent's house to celebrate. My kids don't have any cousins on either side, so I feel bad dragging them away from all of their new things to go hang out with a bunch of adults they see on a regular basis. Plus on a day like Christmas, I know naps will be in high demand and if we try to please all of our parents, naps will get skipped and Tony and I will go crazy! What to do, what to do? Last year we had my parents over together for breakfast, along with my brother and sister. We skipped lunch at Tony's Dad's house, and dinner at Tony's Mom's. I felt horribly guilty for missing out on these events, but it isn't physically possible to fit everything into one day or fit all of that food in our tummies!

I want to figure out a way to please everyone. Ideas? Keep in mind, the 26th is out of the question because of Tony's annual birthday party. Every year we have a party because again, I feel bad. It must be so crappy to share a birthday with Christmas. I even had a party for him 4 days after giving birth with Christmas in between!! I'm working days on the 27th, so I'm skipping out on the party this year! Sorry Tone!

What are your family traditions?